Ink Spot May Mar Afghan Election

October 10, 2004|By KIM BARKER Chicago Tribune

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Fifteen of 16 candidates say they will boycott proceedings and urge followers not to vote.

There were no major terrorist attacks or shootouts at polling stations. And many Afghans stood in line, holding voter cards and prayer beads and sometimes waiting for hours to vote Saturday in the country's first direct presidential election.

But in the end, the war-torn country's grand experiment with democracy was hurt by the smallest of details -- the failure of the ink used to mark thumb cuticles of people who voted. Because of the ink mix-up, most candidates claimed the election was a sham and called for a boycott. Over and over, voters complained that the ink, which was used to prevent multiple voting and was supposed to last for a month, rubbed off easily.

"It was gone two minutes after I voted," said Lutfullah Mashal, the Interior Ministry's spokesman, holding up a clean thumb. "It was nothing."

Given the threats of violence before the election, the ink mix-up seemed almost quaint, Afghanistan's version of a hanging chad. For months, people had feared so much worse, after insurgents and remnants of the Taliban vowed to disrupt the election, the country's first step toward democracy after 23 years of war and the fall of the Taliban almost three years ago.

But the ink problem cast a shadow over what started out as a celebration. Because of this and other alleged voting irregularities, 15 of the 16 presidential candidates said Saturday afternoon they would boycott the election and urged their supporters not to vote.

These candidates, including warlords, a former king's aide and a debt-ridden contractor, asked for the election to be halted.

Their request was rejected and election results should be completed in three weeks.

Interim President Hamid Karzai, the overwhelming favorite, did not join the boycott.

Karzai said Saturday evening that this election was just a first try at democracy for Afghanistan. He said the decision of voters should be respected by all of the candidates.

"We are getting up from a bed of misery," Karzai said. "We are now getting up. We are recovering."

The ink was supposed to be the country's last defense against people voting more than once. Voter registration fraud is suspected to be rampant in Afghanistan.

About 10.5 million voter cards were issued, but human-rights groups, Afghan officials and United Nations workers have acknowledged that many people signed up for multiple cards.

Opposition candidates met Saturday at the house of candidate Abdul Sattar Sirat, with their Land Cruisers and armed guards waiting haphazardly in the street.

By the end of the day, the candidates or their representatives had signed a petition saying the ink and other alleged problems would lead to fraud.

"The results of this election will be illegal," said Sirat, the former king's aide, who had little chance of winning.

"And we urgently demand another election as soon as possible. Any government established by this election will have no legitimacy."

Officials from Afghanistan's Joint Electoral Management Body said the candidates' complaints would be investigated, but the election would continue. Reg Austin, the electoral body's senior technical adviser, called the ink problem "a mistake" and said it had been fixed by mid-morning. Election workers, often with little training, were blamed for using normal ballot ink instead of permanent ink to mark people's thumbs.

Yet in the afternoon, the ink problems seemed to continue. Men held up thumbs marked with whitish ink, purplish ink, black ink and no ink. All had voted.

"See, there is no ink," said Safar Ali Yusufi, rubbing his thumb. "There is no sign of it."

The candidates' boycott announcement was no surprise. For weeks, they have complained of an unfair election and repeatedly threatened to pull out. They have alleged that Karzai enjoyed an unfair advantage as the incumbent and the purported favorite of the United States.

There were some other problems at polling stations. Some stations ran out of ballot papers. Some voters walked miles to vote, only to be told to wait. Some voters were intimidated. Children tried to vote. In parts of the country, snow, rain and dust storms kept people home.

Mohammad Zaher, his wife and their daughter walked three miles to vote at the White mosque in Kabul, only to learn that women could not vote there.

"We came from very far away, but there was no place for them," he said. "So I sent the women home."

At that mosque station, voter intimidation seemed possible, even likely.

Supporters of candidate Mohammad Mohaqiq, a former military commander, called themselves "election observers" but seemed to run the place.

They walked in and out of the polling station, dragging a journalist along to see how workers were not using the proper forms. They talked to people in line. They stood near the voting booths. And they browbeat the polling center supervisor, Mohammad Dawod.